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• Undergraduate Spring 2023
• Women's and Gender Studies

Undergraduate Women's and Gender Studies

2023 Spring Term

Class Schedule

INTRODUCTION TO WOMEN'S AND GENDER STUDIES

WOMENST 100

An investigation of women's experience from the perspective of various disciplines. The course examines the ways gender interacts with ethnicity, race, class and sexuality and explores contemporary and historical issues related to women's lives. Included are such subjects as health and body image, violence against women, and women's achievements.

Class Schedule

SEX, GENDER, AND HEALTH

WOMENST 180

This course explores the reproductive and sexual functions of human bodies, as well as the scientific and social influences on those bodies. By examining sex, reproduction, and aging, this course uses intersectional lenses to explore uneven access to sexual health resources and reproductive justice across cultures, ultimately demonstrating the achievements and limitations of women's health movements in the recent past.

Class Schedule

YOUTH CULTURE FORMATION: RACE, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY

WOMENST 241

This course explores how various U.S. institutions construct "youth" as a social category, how those constructions are primarily interlocked with race and ethnicity, and how those constructions subsequently shape youth cultures in multi-faceted, intersectional cultural contexts such as music, gaming, sports, and media.

Class Schedule

GENDER AND FILM

WOMENST 266

Students will learn to critically view, consider, and describe films, with special attention to representations of sexuality and gender. The course will include instruction in gender theory and methods for deploying gender analysis in the context of film studies.

Class Schedule

QUEER POPULAR CULTURE

WOMENST 325

Queer Popular Culture analyzes mainstream popular culture through a queer perspective, and investigates queer subcultures and their role in creating belonging for the LGBTQ community. Key topics include queer theory, intersectional feminism, heteronormativity, cultural representations, and subversive cultural creation.

Class Schedule

GENDER AND VIOLENCE

WOMENST 351

This course examines gender-based violence, focusing specifically on domestic violence, intimate partner violence, sexual assault, stalking, sexual harassment, and human trafficking. Readings and course activities explore the gendered dimensions of violence and inequality within diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds and across sexual identities and national and immigrant statuses. A community based learning project is required.

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WOMEN: RACE AND ETHNICITY

WOMENST 370

This course will provide an examination of Native American, African American, Hispanic, and Asian American women in the broad areas of work, family/community relationships, creativity, and social action.

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QUEER CINEMA

WOMENST 374

In Queer Cinema, students will deploy analyses of gender and sexuality that respond to the possibilities and limitations of the medium. Queer Cinema is appropriate for any student who wishes to learn how to apply complex theories of gender representation and sexual identity to the analysis of visual narratives.

Class Schedule

GENDER LAW AND POLICY

WOMENST 380

A study of legal, social, and moral issues related to gender, such as the definition of sexual difference, inequality in the workplace, lesbian and gay rights. How those issues have been handled historically and normatively within the legal system will be investigated.

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DIVERSITY LEADERSHIP CERTIFICATE SEMINAR

WOMENST 410

Organized around individual student needs, this course provides students the specialized instruction necessary to complete the co-curricular requirements of the Diversity Leadership Certificate. The course emphasizes the creation of an ePortfolio that will be used to document a student's learning through the submission of a wide range of diversity-related learning artifacts and reflection essays.

Class Schedule

SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE WITH LGBTQ POPULATION

WOMENST 435

This course aims to provide students with a deeper understanding of the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people, and their diverse and intersectional identities as applied to direct social work practice, intervention, and policy. This course will examine a variety of areas of relevance to social work with LGBTQ populations including history, theory, and contemporary issues.

Class Schedule

GENDER, ETHNICITY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

WOMENST 481

An examination of the ways that sexism, racism, ethnic/class exploitation and environmental destruction are interrelated. Considers social and cultural forces that lead to limited and/or gendered concepts of nature, and explores alternative theoretical and activist perspectives (deep ecology, bioregionalism, ecofemisim, environmental justice, etc.) and responses to the environmental crisis.

Class Schedule

INDEPENDENT STUDY

WOMENST 498

Study of a selected topic or topics under the direction of a faculty member.